


Five Times Forgiven

by mneiai



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 15:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8019310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Times Hanzo and Jack forgave or were forgiven</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Forgiven

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [【翻译】Five Times Forgiven 五次原谅 By mneiai 一发完](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862172) by [batcat229](https://archiveofourown.org/users/batcat229/pseuds/batcat229)



> Originally posted on my rp Tumblr, oldsoldiersdiehard
> 
> (I'm always accepting "Five Times..." requests for Jack/another character (or two))

One.  
“Why are they angry with you?”

The question was blunt curiosity, no concern for Jack’s feelings. It was refreshing.

He shrugged, glancing back over at the others as they retreated from the latest briefing. They did there best to hide it, but Hanzo was observant. And tactless.

“I let them all think I was dead. I wanted to protect them and they take offense to that.”

Hanzo scoffed, narrowing his eyes in thought. “They act as if that is not the case in most situations.”

“Have you ever heard the saying ‘it’s easier to forgive than forget’? They understand why I did what I did. They just don’t like it.”

“Hn. Foolish. They should not have forgiven you if they did not mean it.”

“They did. Just…it’s different. We were practically a family. These sorts of betrayals take a while to heal.”

The look on Hanzo’s face was all the reminder Jack needed of just how well Hanzo knew that.

Two.  
Jack had to work to reach the position Hanzo had sequestered himself in, but he managed. The sun was setting by the time he got up there, a splash of red painting the horizon, shifting in odd shadows over Hanzo’s pensive face.

“Just because he’s forgiven you, doesn’t mean you’ve forgiven yourself.” Jack’s tone was that of experience, of painful reminders of the past that he’d never let fade away.

“How can he forgive me? I did that, I…turned him into that.”

And there it was, that disgust that Jack couldn’t really understand. His own body had been poked and prodded and turned into something not-quite-human, and he’d worked alongside people like Winston and Athena long enough to know bodies didn’t matter. But to some people…he supposed being attached to their humanity was one of the few things some people had left.

“He doesn’t care about that, anymore. He’s made peace with it. He might even be better off because of it.” Jack set his hand on the ground near Hanzo’s thigh, not quite touching the edge of his clothing. “Someday, maybe you can follow his example. Until then…I’ve found faking acceptance works just as good as actual acceptance.”

Hanzo considered those words, still not looking at Jack. But at some point, his hand migrated from his lap to rest on top of Jack’s, staying there for the rest of the evening.

Three.  
“You were bleeding profusely,” Hanzo reminded him, poking at one of the bandages to prove his point. “He shot you.”

Jack winced, batting Hanzo’s hand away. “He was scared.”

“Of what? You were offering him help. He took that offer!”

Looking behind him into the medbay, Jack grimaced. “He’s been coming apart at the seams, he was torn between coming with us or going to Talon and he wasn’t sure he knew which was the lesser risk. And he knew it wouldn’t kill me.”

“It could have easily killed you!”

“But he didn’t!”

Hanzo let out a cry of frustration, hands flexing like he wanted to go for his bow. “He has been our enemy from before this ‘team’ had fully formed. He has injured all of us at some point, but especially you. How can you forgive him that?”

Jack ran a hand over his face, shoulders slumping. “You don’t get it, Hanzo. Gabriel coming with us…that was him forgiving me. How can I not do the same for him?”

Four.  
A light breeze picked up through the fields as they approached the worn down structure, taking the edge off the beating sun. The gravel crunched under their feet, the only noise besides the cawing of birds that had made a home in the collapsed roof.

“This is it?”

Jack nodded, a hand shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked it over. “I bought it when it went on the market again. The whole thing. My family hadn’t owned it since my grandpap died, the bank had after that. The seed had been leased, every last one belonged to the company we grew it for.” He remembered that, every year 'buying’ the seed, hearing old stories about how they used to be able to use the seed from the crops the year before, how they used to be able to sustain a farm all on their own.

“The climate didn’t help. One of the reasons I pushed for eco-Watchpoints and people like Mei on the payroll, back in our heyday. People had been talking about climate change for decades, but a lot of the people in power never had to see its effects up close and personal.”

Hanzo looked around them as if fascinated and Jack thought maybe he was. The first time they’d gone to Hanamura, he’d been struck by how many details of Hanzo he’d found there, how many quirks and customs were rooted in him from that place. Maybe Hanzo was thinking to find the same.

“After my dad died, my mother couldn’t keep the place up. It went to some other family. They left, eventually, and…by that point I had more than enough money for it. I didn’t really have much else to spend it on.”

It had gone into a trust after he died, part of the properties Fareeha had technically inherited, despite her resentment keeping her from touching any of it. Now it was his again and it felt like a chain dragging him back into the past.

“There’s a university two hours away, they’ve got an agriculture program. I was going to donate the land to them, let them do whatever they want with it.”

“You do not wish to keep it in your family?”

Jack snorted. “It’s not like I’ve got any kids to pass it on to. And who else would want it.”

Again, Hanzo turned, looking over the land as if he could measure it all out in his head. “If the structure was removed, a new one built in its place…this would not be a bad place to come when one was seeking quiet.”

Looking around, Jack tried to follow Hanzo’s train of thought. The fields were mostly weeds, now, even some trees had managed to sprout up over the years. They stretched out all around them, making it impossible for anyone to approached without being noticed. And another small house in the middle of fields wouldn’t draw much attention, even from someone closely studying the satellite photos.

He kicked a rock towards the porch. He’d had more bad memories in that house than good. That didn’t mean he couldn’t make some new ones.

“…I guess I could see what can be done. The foundation should still be good….”

Five.  
“I never thought I’d live to see the day,” Jack mumbled, burying his face against Hanzo’s shoulder as the announcer started talking over the remainder of the speech.

“It was inevitable. Any fool could see that.”

“You call me a fool so often, I thought you’d realized that’s what I am.”

Hanzo huffed and turned, flinging his arms over Jack’s shoulders and shoving up against him. “You are a fool. But you are my fool, smarter than most of the others.”

Jack grinned and kissed the tip of his nose. “Right. Of course. What do you say we head down to the break room and make sure those bigger fools aren’t getting alcohol poisoning?”

“Dr. Ziegler is better equipped to deal with that. I believe a better celebration is called for.”

The news continued to cover the repeal of the Petras Act and the official return of Overwatch, but neither Jack nor Hanzo were in any state to pay much attention.


End file.
